California Budget Is Already in the Red 10 Weeks After Passage

October 10th, 2009

Sure, believe the shortfall is just a “one-time event.”

Via: Bloomberg:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will know within a month whether a $1.1 billion drop in revenue collections is part of a growing budget shortfall or an isolated event, his budget spokesman said.

Revenue in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 5.3 percent less than assumed in the $85 billion annual budget, state controller John Chiang reported yesterday. Income tax receipts led the gap, as unemployment reached 12.2 percent in August.

“The culprit here appears to be estimated quarterly personal income tax statements,” H.D. Palmer, the governor’s budget spokesman, said yesterday. “The numbers are cause for concern, but the issue now for us is to determine if this is a one-time event or whether it has more long-term implications.”

Posted in Economy | Top Of Page

2 Responses to “California Budget Is Already in the Red 10 Weeks After Passage”

  1. Zuma says:
    October 11, 2009 at 11:53 am

    i gotta say it:

    why can’t they have ‘pedal palaces’ where people can go in and make electricity for even pennies? no, it won’t help california’s budget right off, but damn, it would help the starving. when you’re starving, even a cup of peanuts makes a difference. california’s a failed state and *anything* that helps the people helps the state, no?

    maybe it’s a dopey idea, but one that has gnawed at me a long time. like every time i’m broke and hungry. (thankfully, that’s been years.)

  2. gbell says:
    October 23, 2009 at 3:56 am

    No such thing as a dopey idea, but here are the numbers.

    Have you ever pedalled one of the stationary bikes that tell you how many Watts you’re producing?

    The Tour de France riders produce 300-400W, so let’s call that 350W. Say you were tip-top shape and could pedal that hard for 3 hours. That’s 1.05kWh. Check your electicity bill. Not sure what you pay where you are but let’s say its $0.20/kWh. So for 3 hours of world class pedaling, you’d get $0.21 if they paid you retail rates. And that’s with a 100% conversion efficiency from your body’s power output to the generator.

    Not nothing but not encouraging.

    Also not easy to produce perfect 240VAC/50Hz or 120VAC/60Hz from a human powered generator…

    This puts a bit of perspective on the amount of power you’re harnessing when you have your 1kW room heater or 4kW aircon running.

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